Thermochemical Conversion Technologies

The Thermochemical Conversion Technologies department conducts research into conversion technologies for residual and waste materials. The aim is to provide carbon for industrial processes and products from sustainable sources as well as in the context of recycling.

The focus is on the development of thermochemical plants and processes for the production of energy carriers such as synthesis gas and fuels from biogenic residual and waste materials as well as the (chemical) recycling of feedstocks containing plastics, composite materials and minerals.

In addition to the conversion technologies, we are intensively involved in the treatment and further processing of the conversion products, e.g. pyrolysis oils, carbonisates, syngases and process water by catalytic processes.

Dr.-Ing. Robert Daschner completed his doctorate in mechanical engineering while working at the Technical University of Munich on the optimization of biomass furnaces by combining them with high-temperature heat storage systems. Since then he has been working in the fields of combustion, pyrolysis and gasification on the development of processes and their adaptation to new products and feedstocks in large-scale projects in a national and international context. He has been employed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT, Sulzbach-Rosenberg branch, since 2008.

Dr. rer. nat. Alexander Hofmann holds a doctorate in chemistry and is involved in thermochemical recycling processes for feedstocks that are difficult to recycle. One focus of his work is on downstream processes for pyrolysis products and their processing into basic chemicals for defossilized chemistry.